Tuesday, April 07, 2015

Federal Judge Goes On the Record About Lynching in Mississippi

Here's an astonishing speech by U.S. District Judge Carlton
Reeves, who in 2010 became the second African-American appointed as federal
judge in Mississippi. He read it to three young white men [on Tuesday, February 10th,] before sentencing
them for the death of a 48-year-old black man named James Craig Anderson in a
parking lot in Jackson, Miss., one night in 2011. They were part of a group
that beat Anderson and then killed him by running over his body with a truck,
yelling "white power" as they drove off.

The speech is long; Reeves asked the young men to sit down
while he read it aloud in the courtroom. And it's breathtaking, in both the
moral force of its arguments and the palpable sadness with which they are
delivered...A warning to readers: He uses the word
"nigger" 11 times.

One of my former history professors, Dennis Mitchell,
recently released a history book entitled, A New History of Mississippi.
"Mississippi," he says, "is a place and a state of mind. The
name evokes strong reactions from those who live here and from those who do
not, but who think they know something about its people and their past."
Because of its past, as described by Anthony Walton in his book, Mississippi:
An American Journey, Mississippi "can be considered one of the most
prominent scars on the map" of these United States. Walton goes on to
explain that "there is something different about Mississippi; something
almost unspeakably primal and vicious; something savage unleashed there that has
yet to come to rest." To prove his point, he notes that, "[o]f the 40
martyrs whose names are inscribed in the national Civil Rights Memorial in
Montgomery, AL, 19 were killed in Mississippi." "How was it,"
Walton asks, "that half who died did so in one state?" — my
Mississippi, your Mississippi and our Mississippi.

Mississippi has expressed its savagery in a number of ways
throughout its history — slavery being the cruelest example, but a close second
being Mississippi's infatuation with lynchings. Lynchings were prevalent,
prominent and participatory. A lynching was a public ritual — even
carnival-like — within many states in our great nation. While other states
engaged in these atrocities, those in the Deep South took a leadership role,
especially that scar on the map of America — those 82 counties between the Tennessee
line and the Gulf of Mexico and bordered by Louisiana, Arkansas and Alabama.

In Without Sanctuary, historian Leon Litwack writes that between
1882 and 1968 an estimated 4,742 blacks met their deaths at the hands of lynch
mobs. The impact this campaign of terror had on black families is impossible to
explain so many years later. That number contrasts with the 1,401 prisoners who
have been executed legally in the United States since 1976. In modern terms,
that number represents more than those killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom and
more than twice the number of American casualties in Operation Enduring Freedom
— the Afghanistan conflict. Turning to home, this number also represents 1,700
more than who were killed on Sept. 11. Those who died at the hands of mobs,
Litwack notes, some were the victims of "legal" lynchings — having
been accused of a crime, subjected to a "speedy" trial and even speedier
execution. Some were victims of private white violence and some were merely the
victims of "nigger hunts" — murdered by a variety of means in
isolated rural sections and dumped into rivers and creeks. "Back in those
days," according to black Mississippians describing the violence of the
1930s, "to kill a Negro wasn't nothing. It was like killing a chicken or
killing a snake. The whites would say, 'niggers jest supposed to die, ain't no
damn good anyway — so jest go an' kill 'em.' ... They had to have a license to
kill anything but a nigger. We was always in season." Said one white
Mississippian, "A white man ain't a-going to be able to live in this
country if we let niggers start getting biggity." And, even when lynchings
had decreased in and around Oxford, one white resident told a visitor of the
reaffirming quality of lynchings: "It's about time to have another
[one]," he explained, "[w]hen the niggers get so they're not afraid
of being lynched, it's time to put the fear in them."

How could hate, fear or whatever it was transform genteel,
God-fearing, God-loving Mississippians into mindless murderers and sadistic
torturers? I ask that same question about the events which bring us together on
this day. Those crimes of the past, as well as these, have so damaged the
psyche and reputation of this great state.

Mississippi soil has been stained with the blood of folk
whose names have become synonymous with the civil rights movement like Emmett
Till, Willie McGee, James Cheney, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, Vernon
Dahmer, George W. Lee, Medgar Evers and Mack Charles Parker. But the blood of
the lesser-known people like Luther Holbert and his wife, Elmo Curl, Lloyd
Clay, John Hartfield, Nelse Patton, Lamar Smith, Clinton Melton, Ben Chester
White, Wharlest Jackson and countless others, saturates these 48,434 square
miles of Mississippi soil. On June 26, 2011, four days short of his 49th
birthday, the blood of James Anderson was added to Mississippi's soil.

The common denominator of the deaths of these individuals
was not their race. It was not that they all were engaged in freedom fighting.
It was not that they had been engaged in criminal activity, trumped up or
otherwise. No, the common denominator was that the last thing that each of
these individuals saw was the inhumanity of racism. The last thing that each
felt was the audacity and agony of hate, senseless hate: crippling, maiming
them and finally taking away their lives.

Mississippi has a tortured past, and it has struggled
mightily to reinvent itself and become a New Mississippi. New generations have
attempted to pull Mississippi from the abyss of moral depravity in which it
once so proudly floundered. Despite much progress and the efforts of the new
generations, these three defendants are before me today: Deryl Paul Dedmon,
Dylan Wade Butler and John Aaron Rice. They and their co-conspirators ripped
off the scab of the healing scars of Mississippi ... causing her (our
Mississippi) to bleed again.

Hate comes in all shapes, sizes, colors, and from this case,
we know it comes in different sexes and ages. A toxic mix of alcohol,
foolishness and unadulterated hatred caused these young people to resurrect the
nightmarish specter of lynchings and lynch mobs from the Mississippi we long to
forget. Like the marauders of ages past, these young folk conspired, planned,
and coordinated a plan of attack on certain neighborhoods in the city of
Jackson for the sole purpose of harassing, terrorizing, physically assaulting and
causing bodily injury to black folk. They punched and kicked them about their
bodies — their heads, their faces. They prowled. They came ready to hurt. They
used dangerous weapons; they targeted the weak; they recruited and encouraged
others to join in the coordinated chaos; and they boasted about their shameful
activity. This was a 2011 version of the nigger hunts.

Though the media and the public attention of these crimes
have been focused almost exclusively on the early morning hours of June 26,
2011, the defendants' terror campaign is not limited to this one incident.
There were many scenes and many actors in this sordid tale which played out
over days, weeks and months. There are unknown victims like the John Doe at the
golf course who begged for his life and the John Doe at the service station.
Like a lynching, for these young folk going out to "Jafrica" was like
a carnival outing. It was funny to them — an excursion which culminated in the
death of innocent, African-American James Craig Anderson. On June 26, 2011, the
fun ended.

But even after Anderson's murder, the conspiracy continued
... And, only because of a video, which told a different story from that which
had been concocted by these defendants, and the investigation of law
enforcement — state and federal law enforcement working together — was the
truth uncovered.

What is so disturbing, so shocking, so numbing, is
that these nigger hunts were perpetrated by our children, students who live
among us, educated in our public schools, in our private academies, students who played football lined up on the same side of a scrimmage line with
black teammates, average students and honor students. Kids who worked during
school and in the summers; kids who now had full-time jobs and some of whom
were even unemployed. Some were pursuing higher education and the Court
believes they each had dreams to pursue. These children were from two-parent
homes and some of whom were the children of divorced parents, and yes some even
raised by a single parent. No doubt, they all had loving parents and loving
families.

In letters received on his behalf, Dylan Butler, whose
outing on the night of June 26 was not his first, has been described as "a
fine young man," "a caring person," "a well mannered
man" who is truly remorseful and wants to move on with his life; a very
respectful, a good man, a good person; a lovable, kindhearted teddy
bear who stands in front of bullies and who is now ashamed of what he did.
Butler's family is a mixed-race family. For the last 15 years, it has consisted
of an African-American stepfather and stepsister, plus his mother and two
sisters. The family, according to the stepfather, understandably is
"saddened and heartbroken."

These were everyday students like John Aaron Rice, who got
out of his truck, struck James Anderson in the face and kept him occupied until
others arrived. Rice was involved in multiple excursions to so-called
"Jafrica", but he, for some time, according to him and his mother, had an African-American friend share his home address.

And, sadly, Deryl Dedmon, who straddled James Anderson and
struck him repeatedly in the face and head with his closed fists, he too was a
"normal" young man, indistinguishable in so many ways from his peers.
Not completely satisfied with the punishment to which he subjected James Anderson,
he "deliberately used his vehicle to run over James Anderson — killing
him." Dedmon now acknowledges he was filled with anger.

I asked the question earlier, but what could transform these
young adults into the violent creatures their victims saw? It was nothing the
victims did. They were not championing any cause: political, social, economic. Nothing they did, not a wolf whistle, not a supposed
crime, nothing they did. There is absolutely no doubt that in the view of
the court the victims were targeted because of their race.

The simple fact is that what turned these children into
criminal defendants was their joint decision to act on racial hatred. In the
eyes of these defendants (and their co-conspirators) the victims were doomed at
birth. Their genetic makeup made them targets.

In the name of White Power, these young folk went to
"Jafrica" to "fuck with some niggers!" — echoes of
Mississippi's past. White Power! Nigger! According to the Fifth Circuit Court
of Appeals, that word, nigger, is the "universally recognized opprobrium, stigmatizing
African-Americans because of their race." It's the nuclear bomb of racial
epithets — as Farai Chideya has described the term. With their words, with
their actions — "I just ran that nigger over" — there is no doubt
that these crimes were motivated by the race of the victims. And from his own
pen, Dedmon, sadly and regretfully wrote that he did it out of "hatred and
bigotry."

The court must respond to one letter it received from one
identified as a youth leader in Dylan Butler's church — a mentor, he says — and
who describes Dylan as "a good person." The point that "[t]here
are plenty of criminals that deserve to be incarcerated," is well taken.
Your point that Dylan is not one of them — not a criminal -- is belied by the facts
and the law. Dylan was an active participant in this activity, and he deserves
to be incarcerated under the law. What these defendants did was ugly. It was
painful. It is sad. And it is indeed criminal.

In the Mississippi we have tried to bury, when there was a jury
verdict for those who perpetrated crimes and committed lynchings in the name of
White Power, that verdict typically said that the victim died at the hands
of persons unknown. The legal and criminal justice system operated with
ruthless efficiency in upholding what these defendants would call White Power.

Today, though, the criminal justice system (state and
federal) has proceeded methodically, patiently, and deliberately seeking
justice. Today we learned the identities of the persons unknown. They stand
here publicly today. The sadness of this day also has an element of irony to
it. Each defendant was escorted into court by agents of an African-American
United States Marshal, having been prosecuted by a team of lawyers which
includes an African-American AUSA from an office headed by an African-American
U.S. attorney — all under the direction of an African-American Attorney General, for sentencing before a judge who is African-American, whose final act
will be to turn over the care and custody of these individuals to the BOP
[Federal Bureau of Prisons] — an agency headed by an African-American.

Today we take another step away from Mississippi's tortured
past. We move farther away from the abyss. Indeed, Mississippi is a place
and a state of mind. And those who think they know about her people and her
past will also understand that her story has not been completely written.
Mississippi has a present and a future. That present and future has promise. As
demonstrated by the work of the officers within these state and federal
agencies — black and white, male and female -- in this Mississippi they work
together to advance the rule of law. Having learned from Mississippi's
inglorious past, these officials know that in advancing the rule of law, the
criminal justice system must operate without regard to race, creed or color.
This is the strongest way Mississippi can reject those notions, those ideas, which brought us here today.

A new exhibit at the Mississippi state archives includes
photographs, excerpts from journals and film clips documenting 1964's Freedom
Summer.

At their guilty plea hearings, Deryl Paul Dedmon, Dylan Wade
Butler and John Aaron Rice told the world exactly what their roles were. It
is ugly. It is painful. It is sad. It is criminal.

…[S]entences will not bring back James Craig Anderson nor
will they restore the lives they enjoyed prior to 2011. The court knows that
James Anderson's mother, who is now 89 years old, lived through the horrors of
the Old Mississippi, and the court hopes that she and her family can find peace
in knowing that with these sentences, in the New Mississippi, justice is truly
blind. Justice, however, will not be complete unless these defendants use the
remainder of their lives to learn from this experience and fully commit to
making a positive difference in the New Mississippi. And, finally, the court
wishes that the defendants also can find peace.

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ABOUT ME

I'm a writer, speaker, and sociologist who's made a life's work out of explaining exactly what I see happening in the world. Some people like it. Some people don't. But the ball is still the ball, no matter what kind of spin is put on it.